The "cheerleader effect" in facial and bodily attractiveness: A result of memory bias and not perceptual encoding.

Individual faces are rated as more attractive when presented in a group compared with when presented individually; a finding dubbed the "cheerleader effect." As a relatively recent discovery, the conditions necessary to observe the effect are not clearly understood. We sought to better define these conditions by examining two parameters associated with the effect.

Upregulation of Cystathionine-β-Synthase in Colonic Epithelia Reprograms Metabolism and Promotes Carcinogenesis.

The trans-sulfuration enzyme cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) and its product hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are aberrantly upregulated in colorectal cancers, where they contribute to tumor growth and progression by both autocrine and paracrine mechanisms. However, it is unknown whether the CBS/H2S axis plays a role in colorectal carcinogenesis. Here, we report upregulation of CBS in human biopsies of precancerous adenomatous polyps and show that forced upregulation of CBS in an adenoma-like colonic epithelial cell line is sufficient to induce metabolic and gene expression profiles characteristic of colorectal cancer cells.

Consensus Molecular Subtypes of Colorectal Cancer and their Clinical Implications.

The colorectal cancer (CRC) Subtyping Consortium has unified six independent molecular classification systems, based on gene expression data, into a single consensus system with four distinct groups, known as the Consensus Molecular Subtypes (CMS); clinical implications are discussed in this review. This article is based on a literature review relevant to the CMS of CRC indexed in PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) as well as the authors' own published data. The CMS were determined and correlated with epigenomic, transcriptomic, microenvironmental, genetic, prognostic and clinical characteristics.

The effect of cerebral asymmetries and eye scanning on pseudoneglect for a visual search task.

Pseudoneglect is the tendency for the general population to over-attend to the left. While pseudoneglect is classically demonstrated using line bisection, it also occurs for visual search. The current study explored the influence of eye movements and functional cerebral asymmetry on asymmetries for visual search.

Representational pseudoneglect for detecting changes to Rey-Osterrieth figures.

When dividing attention between the left and right sides of physical space, most individuals pay slightly more attention to the left side. This phenomenon, known as pseudoneglect, may also occur for the left and right sides of mental representations of stimuli. Representational pseudoneglect has been shown for the recall of real-world scenes and for simple, briefly presented stimuli.

Explicit spatial compatibility is not critical to the object handle effect.

In object perception studies, a response advantage arises when the handle of an object is congruent with the responding hand. This handle effect is thought to reflect increased motor activation of the hand most suited to grasp the object, consistent with affordance theories of object representation. An alternative explanation has been proposed, however, which suggests that the handle effect is related to a simple spatial compatibility effect (the Simon effect).

An investigation of the mechanisms underlying the effects of viewing distance and stimulus length on attentional asymmetries during line bisection.

Clinical neglect patients overattend to stimuli on their right, whereas the general population overattend to the left (pseudoneglect). Both phenomena are affected by viewing distance, whereby the attentional biases are attenuated as the stimulus moves from near to far space. Both are also affected by stimulus length and reduce in strength, or even reverse (the crossover effect), as length decreases.

Perceptual biases in the horizontal and vertical dimensions are driven by separate cognitive mechanisms.

Perceptual attention in healthy participants is characterized by two biases, one operating in the horizontal plane, which draws attention leftward, and the other operating in the vertical plane, which draws attention upward. Given that these biases are reliably found in the same individual, and appear similar at a surface level, a number of researchers have investigated the relationship between horizontal and vertical attentional biases. To date, these investigations have failed to find an association, and this may be due to the fact that one-dimensional vertical and horizontal stimuli were presented separately rather than being measured from a single, two-dimensional stimulus.

Heading to the right: The effect of aperture width on navigation asymmetries for miniature remote-controlled vehicles.

Our ability to attend to the environment is asymmetrical and affects activities like navigation. This study investigated whether rightward deviations exist for miniaturized vehicles. Experiment 1 asked participants (n = 26) to navigate a remote-controlled car through apertures that were 200, 300 or 400 mm wide.

Hemispheric asymmetries in perceived depth revealed through a radial line bisection task.

Research suggests that the left cerebral hemisphere is predisposed for processing stimuli in 'near' space, whereas the right hemisphere is specialised for processing stimuli in 'far' space. This hypothesis was tested directly by asking 25 undergraduates to carry out a landmark radial line bisection task. To test the effect of hemispheric differences in processing, the lines were placed to the left, right or centre within the transverse plane.

The influence of distractors and numerical direction on mental number line bisection.

Spatial relationships are used to mentally represent numerical information. We visualize small numbers on the left and large numbers on the right, forming a mental number line. When determining the midpoint between two numbers, healthy participants show a bias to the left, similar to the bias on line bisection.

Visual asymmetries for relative depth judgments in a three-dimensional space.

Our ability to process information about an object's location in depth varies along the horizontal and vertical axes. These variations reflect functional specialisation of the cerebral hemispheres as well as the ventral/dorsal visual streams for processing stimuli located in near and far space. Prior research has demonstrated visual field superiorities for processing near space in the lower and right hemispaces and for far space in the upper and left hemispaces.

End of the line: Line bisection, an unreliable measure of approach and avoidance motivation.

Approach motivation leads to greater left hemisphere activation, whereas an avoidant motivational state activates the right hemisphere. Recent research, which served as the basis for the current experiment, suggests line bisection provides a simple measure of approach/avoidance lateralisation. Findings from Experiment 1 indicated that the landmark task was sensitive enough to identify lateral asymmetries evoked by happy and angry faces; however, follow-up experiments failed to replicate this finding.

"No man is an island": Effects of interpersonal proximity on spatial attention.

While it is generally acknowledged that another person's presence can influence how we behave within our environment, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this influence is limited. Three experiments investigated the effect of social presence on the lateral distribution of spatial attention. Shifts in spatial attention were measured using line bisection, while participants sat in each other's personal space.

A study on the natural history of scanning behaviour in patients with visual field defects after stroke.

Background: A visual field defect (VFD) is a common consequence of stroke with a detrimental effect upon the survivors' functional ability and quality of life. The identification of effective treatments for VFD is a key priority relating to life post-stroke. Understanding the natural evolution of scanning compensation over time may have important ramifications for the development of efficacious therapies.

[A Japanese version of the FLANDERS handedness questionnaire].

Quantitative assessment of handedness is required in various clinical and research settings in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. In the present study we tested the reliability and validity of a Japanese version of the FLANDERS handedness questionnaire, which was a new measure of skilled hand preference originally reported by Nicholls, Thomas, Loetscher, and Grimshaw (2013). Participants (N=431) completed three types of handedness questionnaires: the FLANDERS handedness questionnaire, Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, and H · N handedness test.

Deviating to the right: using eyetracking to study the role of attention in navigation asymmetries.

The ability to navigate accurately through the environment and avoid obstacles is essential for effective interactions with the environment. It is therefore surprising that systematic rightward errors are observed when neurologically intact participants navigate through doorways-most likely due to the operation of biases in spatial attention. These rightward errors may arise due to the operation of an extinction-like process, whereby participants overattend to the left doorpost and collide with the right one.

Keeping your distance: attentional withdrawal in individuals who show physiological signs of social discomfort.

Being in close social proximity to a stranger is generally perceived to be an uncomfortable experience, which most people seek to avoid. In circumstances where crowding is unavoidable, however, people may seek to withdraw their attention from the other person. This study examined whether social discomfort, as indexed by electrodermal activity, is related to a withdrawal of attention in 28 (m=8, f=20) university students.

Upper visual field distractors preferentially bias attention to the left.

Pseudoneglect is influenced by vertical visual field stimulation, such that attentional biases are stronger for upper space distractors. Leftward biases result from right hemisphere visuospatial processing, and may be accentuated by additional right hemisphere activation during upper space distraction. Three experiments examined potential explanations for this finding.

Asymmetries in attention as revealed by fixations and saccades.

Neurologically normal individuals devote more attention to the left side; an asymmetry known as pseudoneglect, which reflects right hemisphere involvement in visuospatial attention. The role of eye movements in attentional asymmetries has received little consideration, particularly in terms of the greyscales task. Stimulus length, elevation, and presentation duration were manipulated, while monitoring eye movements during the greyscales task.

Searching the expressive face: evidence for both the right hemisphere and valence-specific hypotheses.

Quick and accurate judgments of emotional expressivity and attractiveness facilitate social interactions. Eye tracking was used to examine left/right asymmetries across 2 studies. Fixations to each hemiface, and to the eyes and mouth, when judging attractiveness and emotional expressivity were examined.

Some participants may be better than others: sustained attention and motivation are higher early in semester.

Many studies use multiexperiment designs where experiments are carried out at different times of semester. When comparing between experiments, the data may be confounded by between-participants effects related to motivation. Research indicates that course-credit participants who engage in research early in semester have different personality and performance characteristics compared to those tested late in semester.

Close to me: the effect of asymmetrical environments on spatial attention.

Unlabelled: Attention can be captured by distractors and can affect performance. To examine whether asymmetrical distractors, such as a wall, affect spatial attention, Experiment 1 required participants (n = 20) to determine the relative length of pre-bisected lines when a temporary barrier was placed close to the left or right sides of the display. Post-hoc tests showed that attention was drawn towards left, but not right, walls.

The life of p: "just significant" results are on the rise.

Null hypothesis significance testing uses the seemingly arbitrary probability of .05 as a means of objectively determining whether a tested effect is reliable. Within recent psychological articles, research has found an overrepresentation of p values around this cut-off.

An online means of testing asymmetries in seating preference reveals a bias for airplanes and theaters.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate asymmetrical interactions between humans and their environment using online seat booking sites.

Background: Functional differences between the cerebral hemispheres affect the choices people make. For example, when asked to imagine going to a cinema, people preferentially select seats to the right We investigated whether this experimental research generalizes to online booking sites for aircraft and theaters.